GAO to Take Look at FBI Anthrax Probe

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s eight-year probe of the 2001 anthrax attacks has left many doubters. Now lawmakers are ordering another look at the FBI’s investigation.

The Government Accountability Office says it will conduct an examination of some of the science behind the FBI’s conclusion that government scientist Bruce Ivins was the sole person who carried out the attacks. A separate review of the FBI’s work, by the National Academy of Scientists, is expected to be completed this fall.

The GAO examination came at the request of Rep. Rush Holt (D., N.J.), an outspoken skeptic of the FBI’s work in the case. “The American people need credible answers to many questions raised by the original attacks and the subsequent FBI handling of the case,” Holt said in a statement.

Five people died and 17 others were sickened by anthrax mailings in September and October 2001, which caused alarm among Americans on edge following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Authorities said at least five envelopes containing the bacteria that causes anthrax were mailed to news organizations in New York and Florida and to the offices of Sens. Patrick Leahy and Tom Daschle.

After initial missteps, including focusing on the wrong person, the case remained unsolved for years. The FBI closed it in February with the formal finding that the sole person responsible was Ivins, the government scientist who was the focus of the investigation when he committed suicide in July 2008. For more on the case, click here and here.

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